Sanders Estes Unit

Correctional Center

Venus, Texas

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Paws of Hope is a program that started in June of 2009 at the Sanders Estes Unit Correctional Center as a form of rehabilitation for offenders as well as a way to save the dogs and make them more adoptable. Management and Training Corporation (MTC) contracts the Facility through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. MTC's main goal is to help rehabilitate Offenders for re-entry into society, so this is the perfect program for our Facility where all the Offenders will be going home soon.

The dogs in the program are from a no kill animal shelter, Happy Endings Dog Rescue and Camp Diggy Bones, and trained by the offenders and are well cared for. These dogs are able to be adopted by contacting us or the shelter. All dogs can be adopted for a small fee of $100.00 after the necessary application has been filled out. The dogs come with all their shots, micro chipped, and are spayed/nuetered, potty trained and kennel trained plus do a lot of interesting tricks.

There are 40 Offenders that help train the dogs and we have a professional dog trainer, Wendy Palmer out of Burleson, that comes to the facility to teach the Offenders all of the basics and more. This is such a great program and we are happy to be able to utilize it. The Offenders take a lot of pride in the program and it gives them a chance to love something and feel like they can get away from it all for an instant when they are around the dogs. The dogs stay in the cell with their designated trainer, are around people 24/7 and have several "potty breaks" a day, plus an hour of outside time.

We are now in our 13th session and now have a total of twenty dogs. The new session began on January 14, 2013 and the dogs will graduate around the beginning of April. We are a non-profit organization.

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King Tut Unit Mascot and Forever Resident